The perception of the jobs market

I am so fed up with switching on the news or picking up a newspaper and reading headlines about 10000 jobs to go here, 3000 jobs go there blah blah.

These sensationalist headlines sells newspapers! Yesterday was a prime example, take the BT job losses, 10,000 jobs to go was the headline! Their CEO made a statement that was kept fairly quiet stating that BT loses 7000 people per year anyway.

What about the fact that there were 580,000 vacancies in the UK from August to October according to the Labour Market Statistics. And by the way the average earnings were up by 3.3% against the same period last year.

Looking for a job in today's economic climate just means you have to sell yourself a lot better than the next person. There are the jobs and opportunities out there. Look at oZZle, we have 75 jobs advertised by direct employers and hundreds more by recruitment agencies. There are the opportunities out there, it's all down to you and your attitude.

I'm not trying to deny there is a credit crunch and there will be companies that shut their doors, but unfortuntely some of them use recessions to have a clear out. History shows strong businesses survive recessions and many new businesses emerge.

It's critical at times like these you hold a strong can do attitude, sell your skills according to the vacancy requirements and remember every no takes you one step closer to a yes.

Now is not the time to make a career change, it's time to get even better at what you do.

To steal a well known phrase. It's not what the employers can do for you, it's what you can do for the employers.

Extra Days off instead of a Christmas party

I have just been talking to an employee of a Print Management Company and they are doing something different this year instead of the normal Christmas Party.

Instead of spending profit on a Christmas party where employees get mediocre food, some might say appalling music and a chance for the company letch to do his/her thing, they are offering their employees two extra days off that can be taken around the Christmas period. Inspired I think!

If you gave me the choice I would much rather have some extra time to do some Christmas shopping, or spend time with my family after Christmas than attend a Christmas party with people I don't like. Maybe I'm a bah humbug?

But well done to them for thinking a bit differently and taking the opportunity to reward their employees with something worthwhile rather than the obligatory party where most people would rather be somewhere else.

What would you rather have, Christmas Party or extra days off?

Three new employment laws.....just what we all need

Just in case your are not aware there are three new employment laws either just come into effect or about to. Depending on whether you are an employee or an employer, you will have different views on these changes and their impact.

1. Sex Discrimination Act - 2008 Regulations 5th October 2008

This gives women on maternity leave full contractual rights(for everything except pay) during the full 12 month maternity period.

This applies to any woman whose expected week of childbirth is from 5th October onwards.

In layman terms this means that women on maternity leave will still be entitled to benefits such as gym membership, company cars and they will also accrue full contractual holiday entitlement during their entire maternity leave instead of the current six months.

2. New Employment Bill April 2009

This will abolish statutory discipline, dismissal and grievance procedures and replace them with stronger guidance from ACAS.

This new bill will be easier for employers as it's fairly straightforward and much more user friendly. The aim is to get back to a common sense approach rather than procedures. If employers don't follow the code then compensation can be increased by 25% or reduced by 25% in grievance cases if the employee hasn't followed the code.

However, as the code stands it is very open to interpretation, eg: It says that employees should make employers aware of grievances, but does not specify that they need to be in writing.

Employers need to be wary of implementing these changes though as they could be conceived as contractual changes.

3. Working time regulations 1 April 2009

It will increase the statutory minimum holiday entitlement to 28 days.

I think this is very self explanatory, but those employees who already receive pay for the eight bank holidays plus four weeks paid holiday will not receive any increase to their entitlement. However there are other changes to payment in lieu and the right to carry over unused holidays.

Payment in lieu means that if you work on a "bank holiday" you must receive time off in lieu as well as any extra pay that your employer agrees to give you.


For further information visit www.businesslink.gov.uk

Best headline you have ever seen in direct marketing, advertising or sales

There is an answers area on Linkedin, where Boyd asked the question

" What is the best headline you have ever seen in direct marketing advertising or sales letters?"

His answer is "Lose Your Piles In Seven Days For Seven Dollars - Or Keep Your Seven Dollars And Keep Your Piles - Guaranteed!"

Personally, I saw this headline in my local newspaper under the dating ads section, and thought it was highly appropriate. (not that I'm looking for a date)

"Wanted: Safe Men For Dangerous Times"

I am sure there are many of you that have better than this.

Why top bosses in the financial sector need to be fired to sort out the current problems

Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales posted this amazing story about AIG in America.

This just demonstrates to me that until we get rid of the rot at the top of these financial organisations, nothing will change. They will just keep on taking government (or our) money.

"As governments around the world bail out failing financial institutions, politicians are desperate to convince sceptical voters that their money will not be used to keep top executives in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Only yesterday, David Cameron demanded such assurances from Gordon Brown.

But, in the current climate, with the public’s anger focused on them, wouldn’t the city slickers decide to lie low for a bit anyway? Wouldn’t they think it just too risky to be seen living the high life on taxpayers’ money?

Apparently not.

Only a week after AIG was effectively nationalised with an $85 billion bung from the US government, some of its senior executives spent $440,000 on a retreat at a posh California resort. It included all the usual stuff, like golf, spa treatments and banquets.

As you might expect, American politicians and newspapers are outraged.

So are the AIG execs suitably apologetic about their little jolly? Has the opprobrium heaped on them by the public made them realise that they are now operating in a different world?

Erm….no.

In fact, they are planning a few more of these posh retreats. Fifty of them are off to the Ritz-Carlton in California’s Half Moon Bay next week. Other similar events have been scheduled throughout the autumn.

Despite the public anger, AIG does not seem to think that it has done anything wrong. And why would it? That is the way it has always conducted business. Even as it goes to the federal government to ask for another $37.8 billion on top of its original bail-out, there is not a trace of contrition from the company. CEO Edward Liddy dismissed the criticism and defended the trip as “standard practice in our industry“.

Mr Liddy is clearly not used to this type of media scrutiny but it will be familiar to anyone who has worked in the public sector. Even if there are good reasons for taking your staff way to a nice hotel for a few days, the press and the public just won’t wear it.

Clearly the penny hasn’t dropped at AIG yet. They are now, effectively, public servants and they are spending taxpayers’ money.

There is a warning here too for bankers in the UK. If you take government cash, there will be a lot more people watching what you do.

As with the executives at AIG, it will probably take our bankers some time to get used to this. They will continue to do things that most people regard as horrendously expensive but which, for them, are quite normal. Journalists will be scouring the City and Canary Wharf looking for people whooping it up in wine bars, hoping to get them drunk enough to say who they work for. It is only a matter of time before a newspaper reveals excessive pay awards or expensive corporate junkets at a taxpayer-funded bank.

Welcome to the public sector folks. This is how things will be from now on."


Lets wait and see which UK organisation is the first to be found out.

Change is good!

One the biggest complaints we get from our registered Job Seekers is the fact that some recruitment agencies have a huge number of vacancies advertised on oZZle and when they apply they hear nothing back.

We want to ensure that both our Clients and our Job Seekers enjoy the best possible level of service from oZZle and to that end we have now restricted the number of vacancies that any recruiter can advertise on our job board to 200 at any one time.

We hope this action will reduce the number of "phishing" jobs and our Job Seekers will benefit from a better level of service from our advertisers.

We do everything in our power to ensure that Job Seekers receive a reply to their application by providing all advertisers with simple communication templates. This takes seconds to do and we always send instructions to our advertisers on how to use this simple tool. But as always you can only lead a horse to water.....

We hope that everyone benefits from this important change!

Don't sell yourself short and maximise your earning potential

It's not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure.

Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of.

Choose Your Company Carefully
Someone once said that the key to success was to choose your parents carefully. That may be partially true but it is even more important to choose your job or career with great care. The choice of a job or company for which you are ideally suited comes before anything else. If you try to work at something you don't enjoy or don't believe in, you'll never be happy, and you'll never be successful.

Be the Best At What You Do
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to "be the best." Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here's a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you're worth - no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others.

The Key to Motivation
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you're doing, you can't move ahead.

Select one key skill area that is important in your job and resolve to become absolutely excellent in that area. Start today to get better and better.

Some real life perspective

I took the afternoon off yesterday and was walking down my street to do some shopping. A lovely old couple live about four doors down, he is the ex latin teacher at the local private school and she is the ex music teacher. Sometimes I dread it when they are outside as they are both quite deaf but enjoy conversation.

Whilst walking by yesterday they were both out in their garden and I stopped to exchange pleasantries. Being British our conversation obviously started with the weather and then moved on to local issues and eventually onto the global financial issues.

We were discussing our disgust at the bankers complete lack of management and sheer greed that has brought about this situation when Alan said in a very matter of fact way "well I don't need to worry about all this as this is my last winter here, I have only months left to live. I'm going to enjoy every last second". I didn't know what to say so said I was sorry and very quickly made my excuses and left.

His statement got me thinking that we as humans are like sheep, all following the media in our fear and anxiety about how life is going to change(for the worse).

If we all had an attitude that this is our last winter, how different would our outlook, attitude and lives be?

Overcome the age objection!

Nick over at "Ask the Headhunter" has written a fantastic posting about overcoming the age objection.

Basically Nick is advising you to take control of the interview and bring the conversation round to profit which is an Employers number one driver and away from your age.

Nick says,

"Try The New Interview. Quickly shift the discussion onto how you’re going to improve the company’s bottom line. (Of course, you should not be pushy or presumptuous.) The interviewer will forget your age. Employers think first about profit. Help the interviewer think about it more."

Naturally you will need to prepare for this type of interview, and getting some inside information on the company will help. Why not be brave and ask the interviewer if you can talk to a few existing employees in preparation for the interview. Remembering your questions need to give you information about how you will improve their bottom line.

Finally, this advice isn't only relevant to ageism, this approach will make anyone stand out from the crowd.

The power of positive employer branding!

I came into the office today after a wonderful weekend,determined to have a positive happy day and was delighted when I read that Communisis' profits were up 92%... WOW.

The group posted profits of £7.6m for six months ending 30 June 08. This is compared to £4m in the same period last year.

This is great news for the group in many ways, not least for attracting the best talent to keep them moving in this direction. Employer branding is becoming more important in the recruitment and retention of employees. If you are trying to attract a superstar to your organisation what better sales tool than to use 92% increase in profits.

The HR team at Communisis have a large bag of recruitment tools available to them and this is another compelling addition to their toolkit.

Lets hope they can keep the momentum and take advantage of their situation to recruit the best.